Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Memento More: The Death of 24-year old All-Pro Redskins Safety Sean Taylor

A sad tragedy that goes far beyond football--I didn't follow him during his time at the U (Miami) but certainly enjoyed watching him exhibit the skills God gave him during his four years as a Redskin. Taylor made lots of mistakes in the past but seemed to have been cleaning up his act. A random act of senseless violence? Burglary gone wrong? Doesn't exactly sound like it. Sordid past rising up in some sort of revenge attack? Maybe.

This morning in my devotional I read from Eph 5:22: "You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

In his article linked below, Close to Home: Taylor's death will have deep impact on many players, Peter King writes: "Each summer, the NFL gathers all its draft picks in a symposium and alerts them to the potential trouble that comes with being young, rich and famous.... One of the messages at the symposium: If you have to cut ties to events and people in your past, cut them, and cut them before it's too late. It's a message that played out prominently in the Michael Vick story. Vick never became a contributing member of the Atlanta society, preferring to stay tethered to his Virginia home and Virginia friends. He started a new life, but only halfheartedly; his real life other than in football was all with his friends from the past.... The danger there is that if you need to cut them off and move on, sometimes you can't. Either because of a sense of loyalty, or some vow you made a long time ago that if one of us makes it big, he'll bring the others with him. And the others, many times, are the ones who bring trouble with them."

No one knows if this was the case with Sean Taylor or not. But it's still a good reminder that the old self needs to be totally killed off.. because what isn't crucified can come back to haunt you.